You'd swear the pavement was going to start melting at any point. Even the Thai people were sitting in the shade, waving fans and saying "very hot, very hot".
We departed Vientiane only with a plan to get to Chiang Mai. How was not entirely clear. So we made it back across the Friendship Bridge to Nong Khai, Thailand and the advice we were given (it is never really clear who works at the bus station, or bus company and who is trying to make a buck) was to go to Udon Thani for a VIP bus to Chiang Mai.
Dutifully we boarded the bus to Udon...

22 February
A miserable day. To begin with, I overslept, woke up almost at noon. Quick checkout from Roma Hotel, quick taxi ride to the bus station and a two hour bus ride to Udon Thani, all this with an empty stomach. It was not until early evening I had some time for eating. I took a decision to skip Udon’s bar, restaurant and nightlife; instead I went to bed rather early and concentrated me to be in a better shape the following day.

It was an epic few days...we left Oregon on Tuesday morning and drove to San Francisco.
We met Karolyn's colleague and friend Val for coffee (but forgot to take photos!), then NYU buddy Kristin for a last taste of California Mexican.
After dinner we were off to the airport (via the fabulous BART transit system) for a 1 AM (!) flight. Arrived in Hong Kong...waited...flew to Bangkok...waited...flew to Udon Thani...and got to our hotel a mere 47 hours later!! It was Thursday night (Thursday morning in the US).
Aubrey was convinced he had deep...

Sunday morning and I am off to the border with Thailand. I think it was about a 12 to 15 mile ride from city center to the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge. After clearing Lao immigration I rode the mile-long bridge over the Mekong. After clearing Thai immigration, I was in Nong Khai. I stopped at the Mutmee Guesthouse, where we had stayed a couple of years ago. It is run by a British man and his Thai wife; they have two boys around Tony and Vinny’s age. The boys were off at a friend’s house, but I did get to chat with Julian for a bit. I had a...

All the kids are very keen to make it back to The Elephant Festival in Laos by 14th Feb so we commenced the long catch-up journey with a 6 hour bus trip from Chiang Mai to Phitsanoluk. Tomorrow we will continue to Vientiane via Udon Thani (8.5 hrs) then we'll get a rest day before catching a bus or boat to Pak Lai (6-8 hrs). It'd want to be a damn good festival!

FRIDAY 18th JAN 2008
After a non eventful short flight to Udon Thani we took a minibus to the Friendship Bridge (F/B), at the Thai/Lao border, where we swiftly obtained our Loa Visas and entered Laos, crossing the F/B on an interesting bus full of locals, with a very strikingly red 'brothel-esque' interior!
We arrived in Vientiane (The capital City of Laos) at our hotel "Inter City hotel" around 17:00pm just as the sun was setting. The hotel is one of the oldest in Vientiane and although recently refurbished, the interior is simply...

Finally Thailand gave in and provided an experiance that will be remembered and that memory did not envolve going out in Bangkok for once.
Cameron (from Malaysia in his underpants) who I am meeting for the jaunt through Laos is a little delayed in Bangkok and will not arrive till 4th July in Chaing Rai (Thai - Laos border town). Him being delayed by a few days has put a little pressure on the itenery as I need to be in Saigon (Vietnam) for the 27th July to meet Aline who has decided to fly in and have a trek around. So this morning I...

This trip report was penned by Roger Beaumont and appeared in The Nation on May 26. I could not have said it better myself. Enjoy.
"I can't remember exactly where the sign was, somewhere after Saraburi and before Korat, but it was huge: "Welcome To Northeast Thailand - Gateway to Nature" or something like that. I was trying to overtake an 18-wheeler at the time.
There were pictures of waterfalls, animals, birds, the usual tourist stuff. However, the first recognisable sign that you have entered Isaan is when you realise there are no cars...

Up at 4:15 for 5:30 flight
Flew Thai Air to Khon Kaen, went to Chonnabot District, Baan Wang Woen to see mud mee production.
Frames were Khmer style, lao frame but with a board holding the warp on the back beam. I was able to confirm the use of marker threads in the use of the complex mud mee. Basically tied into the warp and cut at the end and used as part of the design element to frame the pattern. Pictures posted above.....They used 1:2 twill structure with 3 shafts. 1 shaft was tied to 2 and 3. 3 shaft was tied to 1 and 2. Where there...

We had breakfast on a terrace overlooking the river (with 3 women in it scraping the rocks for seaweed to make seaweed sesame-seed wafers) and a toll bamboo-footbridge (they charge all the people 20 cents just to cross it) with beautiful, misty-looking limestone mountains in the background. Shortly after we ate, we took pictures of a British couple embarking on an elephant trek. Then the afternoon was spent catching-up on homework. Late-afternoon found us renting some bicycles to trek around town. There is a gravel airstrip in the middle of...

Okay, we know it's kind of soon for another entry, but we had to tell you about our awesome day of Trekking!!
We got up at 7am, rarin' to go; had breakfast at the Guesthouse and then got picked up at about 8:30am by the tour company in a mini-van.
We drove south of Chang Mai for about 45 mins until we reached an area that was full of semi-working elephants. Kerry and I both got to ride on our own elephant and it was pretty cool. They have these little bench type seats propped up on the back of the elephant, where we sat, and the guy...